Charles White

Artist biography

Charles White is currently in his second year of a Bachelor in Visual Arts (Photo Media) at the Australian National University.

His work has been published in the Canberra Times and in Voiceworks magazine.

Artist statement

The text is from Douglas Mawson's account of his 1911-1914 Australasian-Antarctic expedition, The Home of the Blizzard.

What intrigued me about this passage was the inherent gap between Mawson's personal experience of the event and our reading about it. All Mawson had to communicate the intensity of the situation with was a typewriter keyboard.

The silhouettes are figures from Frank Hurley's photos of Mawson's expedition. What struck me about Hurley's photos was the tremendous whiteness they captured. Mawson and co. are rendered as small black silhouettes; blemishes on a vast white wilderness.

Artist work

Artist inspiration

Frank Hurley's camera

In 1929 Australian photographer Frank Hurley boarded the steam yacht Discovery at London's East India Dock and embarked on his third voyage to Antarctica. Hurley was official cinematographer to the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE).

He spent the next two years recording life on board the Discovery, the Antarctic scenery and wildlife, and the scientific work of the expedition. Hurley purchased the Debrie camera especially for the expedition. He used it to make a 'talkie' called Siege of the South. This film premiered in Brisbane in 1931, bringing the alien world of the Antarctic home to Australian audiences.